It contains a dedication to all proctors, which I should not be sorry to attribute to him.

"To all Proctors, past, present, and future-- Whose taste it is our privilege to follow, Whose virtue it is our duty to imitate, Whose presence it is our interest to avoid." There is, however, nothing beyond fancy to induce me to believe that Thackeray was the author of the dedication, and I do not know that there is any evidence to show that he was connected with _The Snob_ beyond the writing of _Timbuctoo_.
In 1830 he left Cambridge, and went to Weimar either in that year or in 1831.

Between Weimar and Paris he spent some portion of his earlier years, while his family,--his mother, that is, and his stepfather,--were living in Devonshire.

It was then the purport of his life to become an artist, and he studied drawing at Paris, affecting especially Bonnington, the young English artist who had himself painted at Paris and who had died in 1828.

He never learned to draw,--perhaps never could have learned.